Pentagon seeks OK to spy on Americans

New bill would allow Pentagon to gather intelligence on US residents without their knowledge.

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Newsweek reports that the US Department of Defense is looking for the right to gather information from, and about, Americans, without having to tell them that they are doing so. "Without a public hearing or debate," the news magazine reports, "Defense officials recently slipped a provision into a bill before Congress that could vastly expand the Pentagon's ability to gather intelligence inside the United States, including recruiting citizens as informants."
Currently all military intelligence organizations must comply with the Privacy Act. The act is a Watergate-era law that requires that any government official who is seeking information from a resident of the US disclose who they are and why they are seeking the information. But Newsweek reports that last month the Senate Intelligence Committee, in closed session, added the provision that would exempt the Pentagon from this restriction.

Among those pushing for the bill was "NORTHCOM," the new North American command set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Colorado. NORTHCOM's mission is to over see "homeland defense."

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee says the provision would allow military intel agents to "approach potential sources and collect personal information from them" without disclosing they work for the government. The justification: "Current counterterrorism operations," the report explains, which require "greater latitude ... both overseas and within the United States." ... Pentagon lawyers insist agents will still be legally barred from domestic "law enforcement." But watchdog groups see a potentially alarming "mission creep." "This... is giving them the authority to spy on Americans," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a group frequently critical of the war on terror. "And it's all been done with no public discussion, in the dark of night."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0617/dailyUpdate.html

KKKan you say KKKgb?

Maybe start with people who are coming into this country and find our where they are and who they are. I lived in SA once and the US made it a one day wait for any one that wished to get a visa to have one. All you had to do is drop it in a box at the gate and come pick it up the next. Maybe they should be looking at some thing like that. It took me a year to get a visa into SA as they were worried I may not be married to the man I said I was married to. Also that I may be a slut(I was 60) and they were very worried about women coming in to their country to go to work in that field.

America!

Something the SS used to do.

Coming your way one unseen, unheard, undebated, unconstitutional provision at a time.